Friday Favorites - Christmas Recap 2022

January 20, 2023

 


Happy Friday!  I am finally getting around to doing a recap of the holidays.

1.  Decorating the House
I love decorating my mantel with this candy land village my sister gave me many years ago.  My mom made for us those knitted stockings a long time ago.


We have a slim fake Christmas tree that fits perfectly in the corner of my living room.  We bought the tree a few years ago at Home Depot.  It's so easy to assemble and the lights can be changed to different settings.

2.  Zumba Christmas Party
We had our annual Zumba Christmas dinner party at a local restaurant.  Our Zumba instructor is the best!  When our gym closed down, and then we had the pandemic, we all did Zumba by Zoom in our homes.  I did the exercise in my basement where I had room to move around with loud music.  When another local gym opened up after the pandemic we all went back to taking Zumba lessons there.  We are a nice group of gym friends, due to our Zumba instructor, who we all love.  We all had a nice dinner out to celebrate the holidays.  

3.  Christmas Eve
We went to early mass on Christmas Eve at our church.  I love how nicely they decorate the church with flowers.

4.  Christmas Eve Dinner
Every year for Christmas we go to my husband's aunt's house and celebrate it with his cousins and family.  It's always a large group and we all eat seafood.  My husband's cousin and wife do all the cooking for us.  We had the most delicious-tasting seafood salad, pasta with fish sauce, shrimp, broccoli, and Tiramisu.

5.  Christmas Day
Every year I alternate hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas with my husband's brother and family.  This year it was my turn to host Christmas.  
My daughter made this awesome charcuterie board.

Menu:  
Appetizer:  Charcuterie board with crackers & Italian bread
Meal:
Roast beef, mac and cheese, french fries, string beans, broccoli rabe, and Ceasar salad.
Dessert:  Christmas cookies, cheesecake, Italian pastries.
I didn't get a chance to take a lot of photos as I was busy doing a lot of work.

6.  Christmas Cookies
My daughter's friend made the assorted cookies seen below for us.  My sister-in-law also made for us a big batch of Christmas cookies.  We had a lot of delicious-tasting sweets during the holidays.

7.  Birthday Coffee
My birthday is four days after Christmas.  To celebrate I got my free hot latte coffee from Starbucks.  
8.  Birthday Lunch with Friends
I went to a local pub the day after Christmas with my friends to celebrate my birthday and the holidays. 
I had a Reuben sandwich and french fries. 
We shared a piece of cheesecake.
9.  Birthday Dinner
I celebrated my birthday by going out to dinner with my husband and daughter.  We went to DeStefano's Steakhouse in Brooklyn.  
I had an Aperol spritzer and my husband and daughter had different cocktails too.
I wore the sweater my sister-in-law bought for me from Christmas.  The sweater is from Loft.
We shared our appetizers consisting of bacon, Burrata, and tomatoes.

We shared a porterhouse steak for two.  We shared creamed spinach and mashed potatoes.  It all tasted delicious.


We all shared a piece of Tiramisu cake.
10. MJ the Musical on Broadway
I'm looking forward to tomorrow, as we are going to see MJ the Musical on Broadway.  We're going to celebrate my belated birthday.  Have you seen any Broadway shows lately?



That is a quick recap of my Christmas holidays.  I had a great time and I'm so grateful for my family and friends.  

Did you have a good holiday?  I hope you have a happy Friday and weekend.


Click HERE to see the blog parties I will be linking up to.

Julie

14 comments

  1. It is fun to look at all your Christmas pictures. I had to smile when I saw the TV NFL game on in the dinner picture. Looks like the Green Bay Packers to me. Wonderful pictures of yourself, too! Have a wonderful weekend! xo Diana

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  2. What a bunch of fabulous favorites! Your church is so beautiful. I loved reading about your family traditions. Your Christmas dinner table looked lovely and all of the food is making me hungry. Your daughter did a great job with the charcuterie board too. How fun about your zumba class getting together. That birthday dinner looked amazing and so did you in your new sweater!! I've never gotten a sticker on my birthday coffee..that is cool! I've heard that MJ show is really good. We saw Jagged Little Pill 2 weeks ago and loved it!

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  3. Julie what a great Christmas and birthday you had. Being with family is the best on top of wonderful food and drink. I but MJ on broadway will be fabulous. We are going to see Grease here in April for my birthday. Love the sweater and color so pretty on you. I have that same sweater in pink so soft and pretty. Have a wonderful Friday. Hugs. Kris

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  4. What a wonderful holiday and special birthday you had! I have been trying to figure out a menu for my birthday but I would rather have what you had! heehee! Hugs, Diane

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  5. I love church on Christmas Eve especially when it’s all decorated. I hope you enjoyed that birthday Starbucks to the fullest and I love a good Ruben too!

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  6. It sounds like you had a wonderful holiday and a fabulous birthday. Enjoy the show! I haven't seen any Broadway shows in a very long time; my grandmother and I used to go and make a day of it heading into the city to see shows ON Broadway.

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  7. What a great holiday and birthday celebration! I just loved the stockings your mother made...so nice to have those kind of things to cherish. Your tree looks great - going to check out Home Depot as we have a similar size tree that is 15 years old and the lights are going bad. Your church looked so nice...just like I remember from my childhood. So glad you had such good times!

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  8. What a wonderfully fun and cheerful post full of celebrations, Julie! Your home is beautiful, the food all looks so good (especially that cheesecake- my weakness!) and Zumba sounds like a blast. I hope you birthday was lovely and it's a year filled with blessings!! xo

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  9. I really enjoyed this post, Julie! It looks like you had a wonderful holiday/birthday season. The porterhouse steak has my mouth watering. Hope you enjoyed MJ. I loved it. The day I saw it, Michael Jackson was played by the understudy, and although I was disappointed, he was amazing! I saw a lot of shows in the past few months - I had to make up for all the time I missed during Covid. I saw The Kite Runner (fabulous!), Leopoldstadt (my friend's 10 year old daughter is in it), MJ, and my favorite, A Beautiful Noise. Today I saw the Tina Turner show that is on tour in Florida. It was good, but I wish I'd seen in on Broadway. Happy Belated Birthday!

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  10. A lovely Christmas and a special birthday Julie. Your birthday latte looks so good.

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  11. Looks to have been a very special holiday, Julie, I'm so happy for you!
    Amalia
    xo

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  12. So glad you had a lovely Christmas and birthday Julie! It sounds like you are still celebrating, how nice to go to a Broadway show! Happy 2023!
    Jenna

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  13. Good morning Julie! This recap post is so refreshing to read. I love the pictures! Nice to see your birthday and your Zumba friends too. Have a wonderful day! xo

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Ping, I did have a nice holiday and birthday! I hope you have a nice week.

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